"This was the voice of moderation until 13 Sept, 2025"
by liberal japonicus OK, flying snakes. https://www.npr.org/2020/06/29/884104072/how-snakes-fly-hint-its-not-on-a-plane I’m also disappointed that pangolins got such bad press with COVID, though I am glad that there is a general agreement that it is bad to eat them (though they are still used for traditional Chinese medicine, unfortunately). One thing that isn’t mentioned about them is that they … Read more
by liberal japonicus Which is Chinese (Mandarin) for ‘And now for something completely different!!’ (according to Google Translate) https://phys.org/news/2020-05-cantonese-lexical-tone-language-evolution.html Tone is interesting because some examples have been described as an areal feature, which I always took to mean ‘we don’t know why the hell it is there, maybe they got it from here’. The question … Read more
by liberal japonicus
I think that there is still a lot of talk left about racism (As DiAngelo said, white people always have an opinion on racism, white people including me), though if you are exhausted, I totally understand. But for anyone who still wants to talk about it, there is something below the fold.
by wj Having spent a week variously trashing and defending the progressive approach, I thought we might try something similar for the other side. (Handicapped, admittedly, by the improbability of anyone sincerely doing defense.** But hey, ya go with what ya got.) At last week’s Virginia GOP party convention, Congressman Denver Riggleman (R-VA) was defeated … Read more
by liberal japonicus Another video, this a reconstruction of the class between non-violent protesters exercising their rights before the curfew and a collection of various law enforcement and military personnel. Shorter. You don’t have to watch it, but if you comment without watching it, you might embarrass yourself…
by liberal japonicus
Since the blog has such a rep for sweetness and light, and we are living in the best of all possible ages, I thought I might present another topic near to my heart. A lot of articles (frex here and here. A bit more accurate one is here) have lauded Japan’s success. The dark side of that success is below the fold
by liberal japonicus This lecture by Eric Cline, author of 1177 B.C. The year civilization collapsed, was a pleasant hour, until the end of the lecture (0:54) where he draws parallels to the current Middle East, though now. I’m wondering how close we are to this.